School Scope: Will NYC Students Join Global Climate Walkout?

Since I wrote this on Tuesday, the DOE has announced that students will be excused to attend the rally.

'Holy Smokes, This Thing Could Get HUGE': NYC Public Schools to Let Students #ClimateStrike ---

Common Dreams

City school
students have
permission to miss
school for climate strike

NY Daily News

15 hours ago

School Scope

Will NYC Students Join Global Climate Walkout?

The Wave | on September 12, 2019

By Norm Scott

https://www.rockawave.com/articles/school-scope-320/

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg blew into town and is making waves over the threats from climate change and leading a global strike on Friday, Sept. 20 with a rally and march starting at noon at Foley Square in lower Manhattan. If the word has caught on, we may see disruptions in schools where there are student leaders promoting a walkout. It will be interesting to see if students in Rockaway, one of the more endangered areas of the city by climate change, take part. Let me know if you hear of anything brewing.

Author Jonathan Franzen in this week’s The New Yorker says that the people fighting climate change are in essence misleading us just as much as the Republican deniers – giving us hope that we still have a chance. Greta is offering hope but he thinks we should be preparing for the consequences. He points out that “we’ve made essentially no progress toward reaching [the target of keeping below 2 degrees Centigrade]. Today, the scientific evidence verges on irrefutable. If you’re younger than sixty, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth—massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought. If you’re under thirty, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.” Phew! I’m out of that zone and have no direct descendants to worry about. But if I did—- well, I do wonder about the proud Republican parents in Rockaway, one of the first places to go in what Franzen calls The Climate Apocalypse.

I wonder how one would teach children about climate change and risk scaring them to the extent we children of the 50s were frightened about the coming nuclear wars by hiding under our school desks during drills?
In the good news department, I attended the Labor Day Parade celebrating unionism on the first Saturday after Labor Day. It was thrilling to see the streets thronged with thousands of unionists proudly wearing their teeshirts. Construction workers and teachers marching together. I of course marched with the UFT contingent and didn’t get much of a chance to engage people from other unions. Given that there are about 200 thousand UFT members, 99 percent stayed home and those who showed were among the most committed. Yes, there is a gap between what I call the 1 percent committed and the rest and closing this gap should be a goal of UFT leaders, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Unionists from both sides of the political divide were marching together. Even the divide between UFT members and their bosses in the Council of Supervisor Associates (CSA) – the principals and assistant principals. Former CSA leader Ernie Logan was the Grand Marshal of a Labor Day parade? The very same people who have made so many teacher lives miserable? How we are all unionists when one is the boss is beyond me. But the UFT leaders often use “we are all unionists” as a reason not to attack mad dog principals.

Norm is a mad dog when he blogs at ednotesonline.com

School Scope: Those SHSAT Tests, Part 2

Published in The WAVE: WWW.Rockawave.com - August 23, 2019

School Scope:  Those SHSAT Tests, Part 2

By Norm Scott

Debates over the controversial SHSAT special high school admission tests has roiled the local education world and has driven a rift between the Asian and Black/Latinx communities. State law forces the city to use only the SHSAT despite de Blasio’s attempts to have it changed. Let me state right up front: I am opposed to using a standardized test as a sole criteria for admission to specialized high schools for a number of reasons, which I will get into in a follow-up column. (For SHSAT news - https://shsatsunset.org.)

In a previous column (Those SHSAT Tests Part 1 https://www.rockawave.com/articles/school-scope-315). I wrote about my experiences prepping for tests in the late 1950s/early 60s for Brooklyn Tech (which I didn’t get in) and the NY State Scholarship exams in my junior and senior high schools (where I was successful). I described my evolution in learning how to take tests between the disaster in the 8^th grade where time was called with 65% of the test completed and 12^th grade where I had mastered test time management. Both times I had been well-prepared to answer the questions but the test prep my schools offered did not address the “how to take a test” issue. I pointed to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast that addressed test taking using the LSAT (law school admissions) as an example. Gladwell referred to a tortoise and hare concept of test taking and how time limits favor hares whereas tortoises who take a slow and steady course bring skills to the table that hares may lack. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revisionist-history/.)

What if the SHSAT were not timed? Would some tortoises pick up enough right answers to get into the specialized schools? A for-profit web site actually has a guide on how to apply for extra time on the SHSAT, a legitimate exercise for students with IEPs, but something that has been abused for SAT’s and other tests, as pointed out in this March 14, 2019 NYT piece:

Is the College Cheating Scandal the ‘Final Straw’ for Standardized Tests?

“For parents desperate to boost their children’s SAT or ACT scores, the test preparation company Student-Tutor offered an enticing solution: claim a learning disability and qualify for extra time. “This time advantage can help raise their scores significantly!” the website blared. “Some students have even reported raising their score by as much as 350+ points!” This week’s college admissions scandal provided an instruction manual for gaming the SAT: bribe the proctor, hire a stand-in, see the right psychologist to get a signoff for more time.

college admissions experts said that in some communities, it is well known which psychologists will provide paperwork attesting to disabilities like A.D.H.D. — for thousands of dollars. “Parents have figured out that this is a freebie,” said Miriam Kurtzig Freedman, a special education lawyer. ‘This was a scandal waiting to happen’.”

The NYC Marathon has no time limits and when I used to volunteer there were people coming in late in the evening. We often hear this said about many aspects of life – even applying to the baseball season: it is a marathon, not a sprint. Should this concept be applied to standardized tests? What if we totally removed time limits? I see the good, bad and ugly to that. I could see myself spending hours on a question that stumped me once freed from the time limits.

I went from a tortoise when I took the Tech test in 1958 to a hare when I received a NY State scholarship in 1962. But was I any smarter other than having figured out how to use limited time on tests to my advantage? Well, I did figure out how to manage a test. I learned to take the number of questions and divide it into the amount of minutes I had and to set up sign posts as to where I should be at different times. Thus on a 50 question test in 60 minutes I had a little over a minute for each question. My strategy was to run through the test answering all the quickie questions to gain time, putting a little dash next to those questions that looked solvable with a little more time – I would go back after knocking off the easy ones. The ones that seemed hardest got a dot, so they could be attacked with the balance of time. The aim was to come down to two options and guess, giving me a 50-50 chance even on the hardest questions. If half the test were in the hardest category, that was a sign to just go home.

Norm takes unlimited time when he blogs at ednotesonline.com.

School Scope: The Politics of Newsies

I have two columns in The WAVE this week, both related to Newsies.

[Memo From The RTC: The Oldies But Goodies]

School Scope 

The Politics of Newsies

The Wave  | on August 15, 2019 

By Norm Scott

OK - So it's an old photo

I was so excited to be part of the recent Newsies production at the Rockaway Theatre Company. Much of the play follows the real 1899 strike which inspired a 1992 Disney film which was turned into a 2012 Broadway musical. The story follows a citywide strike by newsboys who were the key distributors of newspapers in the streets of New York. The newsie strike is described in detail in the 2003 non-fiction book Kids on Strike! This was before child labor laws.

The lead character, Jack Kelly, (played to perfection by Sam Kelley) is possibly based on a real character, 18- year old Louis “Kid Blink” Baletti. The play makes publisher Joseph Pulitzer into the main villain but in the real story his competitor William Randolph Hearst was also responsible. I played the part of the evil Snyder who ran a “refuge” – really prison – for boys. The Refuge reminded me of recent stories of the century old Florida state-run Dozier School for Boys in the Panhandle town of Marianna, where boys were abused in every way possible, including being murdered. The school was closed in 2011. Colsen Whitehead based his recent wellreceived novel, The Nickel Boys, on the school.

Snyder’s refuge is funded by the city and he clearly does Pultizer’s bidding, including leading a group of goons to beat up the newsies when they go on strike, fundamentally shutting down the entire city newspaper distribution system. A telling moment comes when a newsie, after being beaten, runs to a cop for help and he clubs the newsie. Police forces from their very origin have been instruments of controlling unions and workers and siding with the owner class.

The newsies are very poor and most are living on the streets or on rooftops. Exceptions are Davey and his little brother Les, who have parents (and are mocked by their fellow newsies – “where do I get myself a mudder?”), but have been forced to leave school and sell newspapers to support the family after their father suffers an on the job accident and can’t work. The charismatic vagabond and emotional firebrand leader, Jack Kelly, also a talented artist, has won the hearts and minds of the newsies (and Katherine, a rare female reporter).

But it is Davey who has an education and knows stuff Jack doesn’t, who provides the blueprint for forming a union and the strike. Yet when they are on the verge, the more conservative Davey, who has more to lose suggests holding back. Jack retorts: if your father was in a union he would have been protected when he got hurt on the job and you wouldn’t have to sell newspapers. That wins Davey over. Naturally, as in real life, the bosses hire scabs and pay them more. The majority of newsies want to use violence against scabs, but Davey says they lose unless they stand together and Jack and he convince the scabs to join them.

The fictionalized romance between street fighter Jack and the educated Katherine who turns out to be (spoiler alert) Pulitzer’s daughter adds the romantic element, but also a political one. Here’s where we enter fantasyland, but after all, this is a Disney production. When the newsies are demoralized after they are beat up by the goons led by Snyder (me) who smashed the cripple Crutchie with his own crutch and he is dragged off to the refuge, it is Katherine who rallies them, not Jack, (a lead in to the showstopper tap dancing “King of New York”). Jack’s spirit is revived but when he saunters into Pulitzer’s office and discovers who Katherine is, he is arrested and bitter and takes a bribe to sell out the strike, which has some basis since Kid Blink and Davey in real life also supposedly were bribed and had to step down as union leaders: a really important point about how some union leaders are sell-outs (as a UFT member, no comment).

I had been wondering why the historically anti-union Disney would create such a seemingly pro-union work of art. But the current corporate Disney does have some unions. But again it is Katherine who wins Jack and the boys over and her upper class friends (including the son of Hearst) help the newsies put out their own newspaper written by her which wins over the city.

Once again, the upper class kids come to the rescue. The final straw is the intervention of Governor Theodore Roosevelt on the side of the newsies. Wiki reports that in the actual strike, Theodore Roosevelt didn’t do anything. In real life the newsies won some victories due to their own efforts, but here, left on their own, would have failed. It took the intervention of powerful politicians and noble wealthy people to save them. Seemingly, Disney fantasyland, but touching on some truths. Like the goon character I play, Snyder, is the only one to take a fall while the politicians and corporate chiefs escape. And I might even have committed suicide while in jail. 

Norm is always in fantasyland when he blogs at ednotesonline.com. And see his Memo from the RTC column.

School Scope: On Democracy and the Queens DA Race

Here is my latest for The WAVE- July 12, 2019 -- www.rockawave.com. I wrote it on Tuesday so it may not make it into this edition. The Queens DA race has received extensive media coverage because it reflects the internal battle in the Democratic Party between the machine and the new kid in town, DSA activists on the left, an interesting shift from the socialist left which had viewed the Dem Party as little different from the Republicans and not worth the effort. Many still think that way and they will force that debate to be ongoing in DSA, with things coming to a head at their upcoming convention in Atlanta in August. More on the left and the Dems in followups.

School Scope:  On Democracy and the Queens DA Race

By Norm Scott, July 9, 2019

I’ve been posing the Queens DA race as a test case with national implications for the future direction of the Democratic Party. In some ways I see this internal battle as having equal if not greater impact than the 2020 presidential race. (Give me a smack in the head the next time you see me.)

The Democratic Party machine, where our local pols reside, supports Katz. The Cabán coalition, based on the northwest quadrant of Queens, which is one of the most diverse communities in the nation, is supported by activists from all areas of the progressive wing of the party, but the muscle is provided by the Democratic Socialists (DSA), which has been building local chapters throughout the city to challenge selected races on the local, state and selected Congressional levels. (The latest will be NYC principal Jamaal Bowman’s primary effort against longtime Congressman Eliot Engle in the 2020 congressional election in the Bronx: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jamaal-bowman-democratic-primary-challenge-eliot-engel-new-york-justice-democrats_n_5d081e57e4b0ea7c4a4e4c97

One interesting angle here is that the black leadership in Queens, led by Dem County Chairman and Congressman Gregory Meeks, supports Katz. Meeks is not on the progressive wing. Does the black community, which seemed to go for Katz, automatically follow their leaders? Or is there more to it than that – a generally more conservative bent on a number of issues? (Don’t forget the influence of the church). There are rumors that the real Queens boss is still Joe Crowley who was defeated by AOC. Oh, how delicious politics can be --- better than the NBA free agent wars.

As I write this on July 9, Katz leads Cabán by 16 votes, an outcome that some political pros and the media thought very unlikely given Cabán’s initial lead of over 1100 because it was expected that the absentee ballots would be split among the 7 candidates in roughly the same proportion as other votes. Not. Katz took the majority of these votes by a landslide, which seemed to surprise people. Most of the votes of affidavit voters – people who did not show up on the local enrollment lists – were disallowed, which is the basis of the current struggle. I received many requests from the DSA folks who were looking for people to come down as observers. The Dem machine already has people who do that. Both sides chipped in:

“We’re here today because we want to support this Democratic process,” Meeks said. “We want every valid vote counted!” Added Cabán’s attorney, Jerry Goldfeder, “I think both sides recognize the importance of every registered voter and eligible Democrat to have his or her vote counted.”

Jerry is an old friend and one of the leading lawyers on elections – he was also Phil Goldfeder’s (no relation) lawyer, so he has links to the Democratic machine. How interesting that he lines up with Cabán and seems to be supporting Pete Buttigieg in the presidential race.

NY Times Editorial Board headline: One Lesson From the Katz-Cabán Recount - New York still needs more election reform. It is worth reading and also asking our local pols where they stand on election reforms: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/opinion/caban-katz-recount-.html

While the left/progressives celebrated the initial Cabán victory, there is a reality: that if there were a runoff between the two leading vote getters, Katz would gather the bulk of the other candidates’ votes, showing that Queens, other than the northwest quadrant, is far from jumping onto the left bandwagon. Even though I lean that way and voted for Cabán, I will continue to report from the real world.

School Scope: The Debates: On Busing, Capitalism, and Socialism

Submitted to The WAVE for publication, July 5, 2019

School Scope:  The Debates: On Busing, Capitalism, and Socialism

By Norm Scott

The initial debates, while shallow in terms of drilling down, touched on a number of essential issues, at times raising more questions than answers. Headlines stressed the Biden/Harris confrontation on race and busing. I remember the contentious battles over busing back in the 60s and 70s and the consequential racial divides. Biden, as he often does, danced and obfuscated a bit by saying he opposed forced busing imposed by the federal government and we should leave it to the local communities. Harris pushed back about local communities run by people who are anti-segregation. We know there is a history of federal involvement in forcing integration in the schools from both parties – you know, when the Republicans were still a rational party – Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock and Kennedy to Alabama and Mississippi.

I found Harris’ raising the issue, while legitimate, somewhat artificial – especially when those tee-shirts of her as a little girl started appearing the next morning. I would like to have all candidates raise their hands if they support busing as a solution to segregation today. I wonder if Harris would have raised her hand. When Bernie was asked specifically about the issue on Sunday, he gave a rational response that we rarely see from politicians: Is it a good idea to put kids on buses takes them out of their neighborhood for up to an hour ride each way? It is a surface tool that should ideally only be used when absolutely necessary. Real solutions call for housing and economic reforms. By the way, look at the streets on school days and count the buses.

The debate also focused open attacks on Bernie for being a socialist, with loaded questions from the NBC panel  - the right always points to them as liberals but they are as opposed to socialist oriented ideas as is the right. Hickenlooper who apparently sees Bernie’s ideas as a real threat, never missed an opportunity to attack Bernie indirectly by talking about socialism. (The July 1 New Yorker has an article: John Hickenlooper’s War on Socialism.)

 I was disappointed in some of Bernie’s responses which were stock and repetitive, but he did hammer the point that many of our problems are due to outrageous profits on health care. Yes, he said we would raise taxes but at the same time cut the costs of health care which is also a tax of sorts. Get rid of insurance companies and the cost of their profit disappears. He pointed to our high costs compared to universal health care nations with much lower costs (see Germany).

Bernie’s policies align with social democratic parties in capitalist Europe, many of whom have run the governments at times. Not to be confused with Democratic Socialists (DSA) who are closer to traditional anti-capitalist ideologies. DSA is a broad socialist tent and the majority seem to believe that socialism can be achieved by democratic means. But there are also people who do not support liberal democratic norms, like a multi-party system. Confusion around these terms should be cleaned up

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, a voice representing a vision of left-leaning economic analysis, was often ignored – until the 2008 crash and the crisis it created within capitalism and its structure. He has a new book, People, Power, And Profits which makes a case not for socialism but for progressive capitalism, sort of where Elizabeth Warren is coming from. He argues that we don’t have really free markets, a faux bedrock of capitalism, but an economic system concentrated in the hands of the few who in turn exercise control over the political system, thus leading to an increasing economic gap which has spurred populism on the right and the left. I know revolutionary socialists who believe in overthrowing capitalism who are cheered by this news since they feel it is pretty much what Marx predicted would happen. What he didn’t predict was that the right populists could defeat the left, as it did in Germany under Hitler.

A closing note on free markets. Trump Dept of Ed. appointee Betsy DeVos’s has rolled back Obama-era regulations, intended to protect students against predatory for-profit colleges, which trap students into high debt they can never repay, guaranteed by the federal government which funnels money into their hands. People who ask when Bernie of Warren talk about free college how are we paying for it don’t ask the same question about those tax payer funded profits.

Norm blogs for no profit at ednotesonline.com.

Comment from a parent activist:

A good article on busing by Matthew Delmont. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/kamala-harris-and-busing-debate/593047/

"Buses had long been used in the South—as well as in New York, Boston, and many other northern cities—to maintain segregation. This form of transportation was not controversial for white parents. Put more starkly, school buses were fine for the majority of white families; busing was not."

Plenty of parents are willing to make their kids travel out of their neighborhood to attend G&T programs.  

 

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The WAVE - School Scope: The Smell of Socialism is in the Air

School Scope: The Smell of Socialism is in the Air
By Norm Scott

Submitted for print publication for April 12, 2019 - www.rockawave.com

There’s been a lot of talk about socialism. Bernie and AOC plus at least two other members of Congress, Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar and five just elected Chicago city council members identify themselves as members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA has its roots in the Socialist Party of America (SPA), whose most prominent leaders included Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas and Michael Harrington. DSA has grown exponentially from 5 to 60 thousand members since the election of Trump in 2016.

I’ve been looking at options since I’ve pulled back from organizing in the UFT. One was to get involved in Democratic Party politics. A leader of a Manhattan political club told me to find a local club to join. Then I saw Lew Simon getting petitions signed to get current Queens borough president Melinda Katz on the ballot so she can run for Queens DA and the thought of having to do that made me gag. The DSA candidate is Tiffany Cabán who seems so much more akin to my politics.

So, I started to attend some DSA meetings to learn more about the organization The NYC group has 8 branches located geographically in all boroughs and a citywide labor branch for those in unions.

About 60 people attend the monthly meetings of the South Brooklyn branch. They are very well organized and have working groups organizing for housing, health care, climate and just about any other issue you can imagine. The idea is to activate people at the grass roots level but they also include lobbying and running for office on a Democratic Party line. At this point DSA is not interested in putting itself forward as a third party. The national organization and its local branches have already endorsed Bernie Sanders and are going full bore to support his getting the nomination.

There is a lot of internal debate inside DSA over which direction it should go. While avowedly socialist, DSA is a big tent for people with socialist ideas from revolutionary Leninists to social democrats along the lines of Scandinavian countries which are capitalistic, albeit with a lot of controls and high taxes. The key issue is who own the means of production, the state or private interests. I’m not ready to jump into full-bore socialism with absolute state control since that has not turned out so well. The China miracle can be attributed to the willingness to allow private interests to operate. But I do believe in heavy duty controls over free-reign capitalism where the profit motive will overrun everything and everyone and lead to immense wealth gaps. An extreme example are attacks on the public school system as being “socialist”, which the “choice” charter school movement has tapped into and has lead to one scandal over another. I believe in the neighborhood school and if you don’t like it go pay for a private school.

The closest this country has come to socialism was during FDR’s New Deal during the depression in the 1930s which gave us social security and other protections which Republicans and some Democrats opposed and have been trying to undermine since then, with some success. There are so many socialist brands inside DSA, including some New Dealers and other critics who say the Democratic Party is a dead end. I imagine Democratic centrists would be very happy if DSA just stayed away, given the threats to primary incumbents or to run people like Tiffany Cabán against machine candidates like Melinda Katz.

It was not that long ago where talk of socialism would cause most people to break out in wild laughter in this, the least socialistic nation. And Trump is going to make that his main attack on the Democratic Party. He may be successful in 2020 but over time the younger generation does not seem to have the same fear of socialist ideas, mostly due to the rampages of capitalism. No one wants to opt for the China model and it may take another severe depression to even bring us back to the New Deal, albeit with universal health care, something FDR had in his program but abandoned, fearing his going too far would endanger his entire program. Imagine if Roosevelt had succeeded then. What would Bernie have to talk about?

Norm runs a proletarian dictatorship at his blog, ednotesonline.com.

School Scope: UFT Election Votes Will Be Counted April 17

For The WAVE - April 5, 2019

School Scope:  UFT Election Votes Will Be Counted April 17

By Norm Scott

I’ve been getting emails from UFT members asking me for suggestions on how to vote in the UFT elections and ballots must be received by April 16. They ask because they are aware that I’ve been deeply involved in internal UFT politics for decades and know all the players. In the past I would recommend the slate I was working with. This year I have no such recommendation for the first time in decades.

Two hundred thousand (a rough estimate) UFT members began receiving election ballots the week of March 24.  In my 52 years of UFT membership, 49 of them part of active minority parties, I can’t remember four parties (caucuses) running independent campaigns. Unity Caucus has run the UFT since its inception in the early 60s and due to the divisions among the three minority parties is guaranteed to win every single position, thus making the election outcome a foregone conclusion. The overwhelming majority of members (75%) toss the ballot away. The 60,000 retirees can vote for the majority of positions, including all officers and three quarters of the Executive Board and 750 delegates to the state and national conventions.

Retirees have the highest return rate (they have the time) and also vote Unity by 85% (they are the happiest people in the UFT). The winning slate, which will be Unity because the other three slates will split the anti-Unity vote, will serve a three year term. The other slates are New Action, Solidarity, and MORE. If you are a UFT member and still have your ballot, is very easy to vote for a slate – just put an X in the box on the front page, tear it off and mail it in. I am not doing that but am voting for individuals from all four slates, a tedious affair as I have to wade through pages of candidates.  Let me explain.

The reasons I am no longer voting for a slate are convoluted. In order to have a chance to win any of the all three parties needed to unite and run a massive campaign with hundreds of candidates. Despite entreaties to do so, it didn’t happen and each of the three opposition slates are running limited campaigns with less than 50 candidates each. A losing proposition and from my perspective a total waste of time, energy and money. I don’t have the space here to define the differences between the groups but do so on my blog. I’m fundamentally sitting this election out for the first time since 2001.

As a founder of the MORE caucus in 2012 I was very active in the 2013 and 2016 elections and helped engineer a narrow victory for the seven high school executive board seats – a drop in the bucket, given there are over 90 seats controlled by Unity. The reason we won was due to an alliance MORE made with the New Action caucus. Solidarity did not get on the ballot last time due to not reaching the required 40 candidates for slate status. This time Solidarity is on the ballot, thus creating the four ballot lines.

I am no longer associated with the MORE caucus because MORE refused to work with anyone else or run a serious campaign, thus helping strengthen Unity Caucus’ control of the UFT. I am now a free agent in the UFT political scene, free to alienate everyone. I have been thinking of getting involved in other political work, especially locally. There is standard Democratic Party politics – both the machine and the progressive Dems, community board work and some intriguing work with the current hot item on the left – the Democratic Socialists (DSA) of AOC fame who so terrorizes Republicans and centrist democrats. I have been going to some South Brooklyn DSA meetings, which I will report on in the future.

You can read about Norm’s choices for candidates at his blog, ednotesonline.com.

The WAVE: SRO at Jackson Heights Education Forum with Ravitch, AOC and others

Published March 22, 2019, www.rockawave.com

(See videos at: Videos: Jackson Heights Ed Forum - From Michael Elliot.)

School Scope: SRO at Jackson Heights Education Forum with Ravitch, AOC and others

By Norm Scott

A star-studded education forum organized by the Jackson Heights People for Public Schools was held on March 16. Among the speakers were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the district in Congress, NY Senators Jessica Ramos and Assembly member Catalina Cruz, who represent the district in the Legislature, as well as Senators Robert Jackson and John Liu. Among the terrific education advocates who spoke were Johanna Garcia of NYC Opt out, Maria Bautista of AQE, Carol Burris of Network for Public Education, the great education true reformer Diane Ravitch, Kate Menken of the NYS Association for Bilingual Education and Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters.

What would be a normal educational forum turned into a major event due to the star power of AOC and Ravitch. The Jackson Heights People for Public Schools were among AOC’s first supporters. Their mission is: “We work to educate the community about the public schools in Jackson Heights and to support parents and members of the community who wish to make our schools even better.” How great to see grassroots groups springing up to organize resistance to ed deform and offer a progressive alternative.

One of the founders and leaders of the group is parent activist Amanda Vender, currently a NYC high school teacher. I first met Amanda over a decade ago - I think she was working with the newspaper Indy Kids and I was distributing some of them to some people in the schools. Eventually Amanda became a teacher and parent. I distinctly remember her bringing her few weeks old child to some forum we were running. She and her group are bringing a pro-public school, pro opt-out, progressive vision of education to her own community. Thinking about her work made me realize that the work inside a union opposition I’ve been doing begins to look meaningless compared to the organizing work Amanda and others have done in their communities. If I had done similar work in Rockaway - (and of course if I had kids I might have), I would have been much more useful than I was pushing the boulder uphill in UFT opposition politics. Maybe next life. Amanda Vender is a model for educational organizing. Amanda not only talks the talk, she walks the walk.

Last week I wrote about the March 9 Parent Action Conference sponsored by NYC Kids PAC, Class Size Matters and Community Education Council District 2 (CECD2) which was attended by progressive politicians. There were workshops on class size, how to opt out of testing, how to run for office, advocating for children with special needs in English and Spanish, protecting student privacy, school integration, fighting charters. We also watched a film called Testing about the culture around taking the controversial SHSAT for specialized high schools like Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx HS of Science. NYC Kids PAC and Class Size Matters have formed their legislative agenda for 2019 around these and other issues: Amending mayoral control to provide for more oversight over the dictatorship over the schools held by the mayor, funding for class size reduction, a moratorium on new charters and stronger accountability and transparency, fees on developers to go into a fund for new school construction, a pied-a-terre tax for homes worth over $5 million, and an explicit law giving parents the right to opt out of 3-8th grade standardized tests. Politicians who want Kids Pac endorsement are being asked to sign on to this agenda. I wonder how many Rockaway politicians would agree: Eric, Stacey, Joe, Donovan, Michele, James, Melinda? Lou?

Music recommendation: Good Citizen by Mighty Sparrow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ps20yaVyro

Norm blog mindlessly about education and politics at ednotesonline.com.

School Scope: Red State Teacher Rebellion Spreads to Blue State Cities- Norm in The Wave

50,000 marched in Los Angeles to support teacher union

Here is my column for the Dec. 28 edition of The WAVE:

School Scope: Red State Teacher Rebellion Spreads to Blue State Cities

By Norm Scott

One of the major events in education over the past year were the teacher revolts in heavy duty Trump states: West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and the increasingly purple Arizona. These were state-wide revolts, all in places with relatively weak state teacher unions, which did not lead or even support some of the early actions by the rank and file, but jumped on board when they saw which way the wind is blowing. Many of the teachers were Trump supporters.

Now we are poised to see the first big city in the bluest of states join the fray with the successful Chicago charter school teacher strike and the upcoming Los Angeles Teachers Union (UTLA) strike in January. And in Oakland, teachers are increasingly restive, with one group going on a wildcat (no official union leadership support) sick out. While the Oakland wildcats came from the rank and file, Chicago and LA actions are union led.

A report from Capital and Main, a California newsletter:

“Two California teachers unions, which are currently deadlocked in separate contract talks with their respective school districts, are on the verge of launching the West Coast’s biggest teacher walkout since 1989. What happens next will decide far more than fair wages for career educators. At stake are broader principles of equity, expressed as contract demands for smaller class sizes and less testing, the addition of sufficient health and social services staff, and an investment in community schooling and fair funding — aimed at restoring public education as a public good for all Californians, rather than as a private interest granted to the lucky few…” -- https://capitalandmain.com/learning-curves-los-angeles-and-oakland-teachers-rally-amid-deadlocked-contract-talks-1214

The Los Angeles teacher union is led by a very progressive group with Alex Caputo-Pearl as the leader. He has a very firm vision of a teacher union being focused on issues beyond the membership but also inclusive of the students, their families and their communities. Any teacher knows that the conditions their students live in has an enormous impact on their working conditions. And the reverse is also true. Satisfied and happy teachers have a positive impact on the learning conditions of students.

Chicago Teacher Union rank and file at 15 charter schools vote overwhelmingly to approve contract in wake of first strike of charter operator in U.S. history… Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Educational historian Diane Ravitch comments: The billionaire backers of charter schools must be furious. The teachers at one of Chicago’s biggest charter chains organized a union and negotiated successfully for higher pay, smaller classes, and protection of their students from ICE. The main reason the billionaires support charter schools is to snuff out unions and their demands.

And speaking of wealthy charter backers, this headline caught my eye: U.S. “Working” to Extradite Cleric to Turkey. The cleric is the reclusive Fethullah Gullen, who has established the largest network of charter schools in the this nation, though they hide their connections to Gullen. He is the major enemy of thuggish Turkey President Erdogan, equally despicable. Hmmm, who to root for? If Gullen is sent back to Turkey, the fate of his charters, all non-union, may hang in the balance.

Michael Moore film and education

Last week, Rockaway Women for Progress sponsored the latest Moore film, Where to Invade Next. Moore “invades” a variety of  nations to “steal” their best ideas to bring back to us. He examines the education system in Finland, which is often considered a model and is in many ways diametrically opposite to the system we have here in the states. Testing is minimal, neighborhood schools are supreme, there are no competitive charters, and 100% of the teachers, who have a major role in educational policy, are in the union.

I’ll close with this: Examine the history of nationalism over the past 150 years and the ensuing wars before jumping on board that train.

See Norm hop off that train at ednotesonline.com.

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UFT Election Season Opens, Does Anybody Care?

Well, apparently some people care. Just not enough to make much of a difference. Today, the UFT Ex Bd will set up the election timetable. There is an election committee chaired by Amy Arundell. They met last week with one rep from each of three caucuses plus a dozen Unity Caucus members. Why shouldn't Unity get a 12-1 advantage?

Below is the column I submitted to The WAVE for publication Dec 7.

I'm still holding to my boycott the election position.

School Scope: UFT Election Season Opens, Does Anybody Care?
By Norm Scott

The UFT has announced its timetable for the upcoming UFT elections. Petitioning will take place from mid-January to mid-February and ballots will go out late March, to be returned by mid-April. I already know the results not because I can read the future but because I can read the past.

Every three years the 200,000 member United Federation of Teachers, elects its leadership. Actually, it re-elects its leadership, as it has done since the union was founded in 1962. Many UFT members are not aware that there are political parties – caucuses - in the UFT. There are a number of them. Currently they are MORE, New Action and Solidarity. ICE-UFT was an election caucus through 2010, but currently exists to meet in a diner once a month to gossip about the other caucuses and eat rice pudding.

Unity Caucus has won every election and has set up rules to assure its election in perpetuity. Sort of like those Republican controlled states which have gerrymandered their way to victory. At least there is a chance every10 years to make changes. Not so in the UFT, which is fundamentally a monarchy.

The only area of weakness shown by Unity has been in the high schools, where Unity has lost by a small margin in almost every election since the early 90s. There are about 20,000 high school UFT members, of which about 4500 voted in the last election. The opposition, if they can agree to unite for the elections without scratching each others’ eyes out, can win the seven (out of 101) Executive Board seats. In 2013 Unity garnered a paltry 1580 high school votes. The opposition did even worse but smartened up by coming together in 2016 and won with 2350 votes. Not exactly a mandate but it was still 150 more than Unity got. Actually, Unity increased its vote by about 500 from 2013. But still, embarrassing. The Unity Caucus union leadership, with all its advantages, can garner the support of only 2200 out of potential 20,000 votes. Sad.

As for the rest of the UFT, there is fundamentally one big yawn among the 70% of the membership which doesn’t vote.

One would think you’d have to be nuts to get involved in an election you have no chance to win. But lo and behold, in every election cycle, one or more non-Unity caucuses decide to throw their chalk into the ring. I, for instance, have been a very active participant in every election cycle with a variety of caucuses since the 2004 election. That’s five elections where I ended up putting in months of work. For the record, I am nuts.

In the 2016 election my goal was to win the seven high school Executive Board seats and we accomplished that. This time none of the three caucuses could come together, so there will be three opposition groups competing for those 2300 votes. Which means, Unity will win the high schools in addition to every other position. Yes, I’ve been nuts when it comes to UFT elections over the past 15 years. Not this time.

Norm’s nuts at ednotesonline.com

School Scope: I Don’t Get It - Norm in The WAVE

Submitted for publication, November 30, 2018, www.rockawave.com

School Scope: I Don’t Get It

By Norm Scott

I don’t get it: That the opposition caucuses in the UFT can’t seem to come together to run against the ruling party of the UFT – Unity Caucus – which as controlled the union since its inception almost 60-years ago. So unless there’ s a change, three groups will be competing for the roughly one quarter of those who bother to vote against Unity in almost every election, though in the high schools the opposition vote is generally over 50%, which has allowed the opposition to win the seven high school executive board seats. UFT elections every three years are stacked in favor of Unity, especially due to the potential votes of retirees, who are happy campers who have left their classroom concerns far behind. They might as well not waste their time running at all, which perfectly suits me. The UFT is fundamentally a one-party system and we should treat it that way.  I say boycott the elections, which by the way, 70% of the members do anyway by not bothering to vote in the first place. Hmmm, maybe they figured it all out way before I did.

School Scope: Test Scores from Spring ’18 Released - Oct. 5

School Scope: Test Scores from Spring ’18 Released

By Norm Scott

In case the news passed you by, the New York State reading and math tests students took last April and May were released last week, tests that are no use to students, parents or teachers so long after the school year ended;  expensive tests that have distorted education at every level from pre-k through high schools are fundamentally useless. But they are used to rate part of teacher performance, also useless since that practice has also been discredited. They are also used to rate overall school performance and as an excuse to try to shut down public schools whose buildings are coveted by well-funded charter school chains.

Testing mania is not a new thing. I remember how standardized testing (as opposed to teacher or school-wide tests) was important in my elementary and middle schools in the 1950s and regents test-driven in high school in the early 60s. And as an elementary school teacher from the late 60s through the late 90s testing was a driving force. But it was used mainly to address the outcomes of children and we received the results before the school year ended, still too late to do much with them. (I advocated that tests be given in September so teachers could actually use the outcomes to assist their students.)

With the No Child Left Behind Law pushed by the Bush administration with the support of Democrats in the early part of this century, testing became a political cudgel used to attack entire school systems, close down schools, and punish teachers and students. The punishment put careers of educators and politicians on the line and that drove us to the present hysteria.

Along side that has grown a vast educational-industrial complex forming a testing industry that makes enormous profits from the tests and to ensure those profits there has sprung up a pro-testing lobby funneling money to politicians who control the state education departments. Our own NY State Education Department (NYSED) has pushed hard on tests and I suspect this is more about politics than education.

There has been a counter reaction against testing – the opt-out movement to have kids sit out the tests. Despite enormous attacks against opt-outers by educational bureaucrats in NY City, the opt out rate in NYC was slightly up to 4.4 percent, a .4 percentage point increase from last year. Statewide the numbers are still around 20%. The highest refusal rates have been in the wealthier/whiter districts with District 15 (Park Slope) leading the pack with 12% opt-out.

NYSED has tried to lure opt-outers back by making cosmetic changes in the test along with reducing some testing time. But this has not affected the many schools that focus on the tests with enormous test prep time that takes away from curriculum.

You  can read Fred Smith, a major critic of the testrocracy, who takes apart the tests on my blog: Fred Smith: Opt-out movement is viable and capable of growth in NYC - https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2018/09/fred-smith-opt-out-movement-is-viable.html.

It’s all about politics

You may have noticed that I have focused more on politics than education recently. As you can see from the above we can’t isolate educational policy from the politics and politicians behind it. Both political parties are responsible for bad education policy – Obama’s Race To The Top funneled billions  to schools based on some of the worst policies we’ve ever seen. But what about local politics? Our local electeds and the political machines that back them say little or nothing about bad ed policies. It is time to hold them accountable.

Norm Races to the Bottom at ednotesonline.com.

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School Scope: Democratic Party Needs Reform – Start Locally with New Queens Dems

In this column, submitted for Sept. 14, 2018 publication to The WAVE www.rockawave.com) I go from pre-civil war slavery to the current situation in the Queens Democratic Party, an example of my irrational response to a looming deadline, where I throw stuff against a wall and see what sticks.


School Scope: Democratic Party Needs Reform – Start Locally with New Queens Dems
By Norm Scott

Slavery was recognized in our original constitution. Remember the good old days when slavery was legal and you could be arrested for protesting the law? I think of that when I hear complaints about protests.

In the pre-civil war mid-19th century, as the anti-slavery movement grew in power in the north from a smallish protest movement in the early part of the century into a moral imperative by the 1850s, the United States Congress became a physical battleground, with canings and duels, as many southern “gentleman” members of Congress took any attack on slavery as a personal and political insult. This story, “The Violence at the Heart of Our Politics” was chronicled in the Sept. 9th Sunday NY Times and talked about the 1830s through the breakout of the Civil War where political debates turned violent. Many of the elected were often packing heat, most from the south where gun culture was embedded more deeply than in the more industrial north. Some things don’t change all that much. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/opinion/sunday/violence-politics-congress.html)

Some of the issues separating people today are similar to then, with race at the top. There were 4 million slaves in 1860 and most southerners felt that was OK. (I think there are still people who lament the end of slavery.) I don’t follow the right or alt-right but I’ve heard fragments of comments saying we were less bad than others. I wonder when the newly encouraged anti-Semites will argue Jews were better off under the Pharaohs and Moses made a mistake when he opened up the Red Sea.

Studying the evolution of both parties over the past 160 years is a fascinating exercise. Two-party system was solidified by the mid-late 1850s, with the newly formed Republican Party standing for anti-slavery. The pro-slavery Democratic Party was shaped in the 1820s by Andrew Jackson, a noted racist.

Switching gears to local Democrats: They say all politics is local and our little sliver of paradise here in Rockaway would certainly make for an interesting study of party politics, especially given the outcomes of the 2016 Presidential election on the peninsula where the west end went overwhelming for Trump while as you move east the vote switched to Democrats.

A couple of things caught my eye recently. A NY Times piece uncovered the seemingly corrupt Queens Democratic Party machine which focused on the Queens County Committee and how membership has been manipulated as progressives seeking to be members were denied entry. How Party Bosses, Not Voters, Pick Candidates in New York – a must read if you are interested in reforming a corrupt system. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/nyregion/new-york-politics-party-bosses.html).

The way party business is done is not the way to take on Trump and the Republicans. Is our county Dem party machine still headed by Joe Crowley whose defeat by a democratic socialist has resulted in international attention? Is the machine shutting out Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez types as a way to keep control? Crowley may be gone from Congress, but the machine he runs seems to live on.

There were two letters in the Sept. 7 WAVE addressing the local Democratic Party situation. Norman Silverman made a plea to the local party clubs to broaden the base. “The party that preaches democracy must actually practice democracy.” The other letter was from the The New Queens Democrats, who describe themselves as “a progressive, grassroots organization advocating for transparency, inclusionary democracy, and accountability within the Queens Democratic Party. NQD serves as an encouraging environment for those looking to become more engaged. NQD hopes to foster a new generation of elected Queens Democratic leaders.” I went to their web site and signed up for their newsletter and hope to do more reporting on them in the future. https://www.newqueensdems.org.

And speaking of corrupt, education superstar Diane Ravitch reported: Cuomo Campaign Smears Cynthia Nixon as an Anti-Semite, Which is Demonstrably False. (https://dianeravitch.net/2018/09/10/new-york-cuomo-campaign-smears-cynthia-nixon-as-an-anti-semite-which-is-demonstrably-false/).

Since you will be reading this after the primary, I won’t get deep into this story but the slime will keep oozing out of the Democratic Party machine and until we see massive reforms, the even slimier Republicans will continue their own oozing.

Norm tosses his own slime at phony ed reformers at ednotesonline.com.

School Scope: Socialism and Confusion

I'm continuing my series of posts in The WAVE trying to sort out "the left" for myself - and maybe others who are as confused as I am. I have begun reading more deeply from current and historical sources to gain more clarity. And I am talking to people on the left. Some of my closest friends lie within the "socialist" spectrum. How can we not have doubts about the problems with capitalism when we see what is going on in this country and others as power and money accumulates in fewer hands? On the other hand, the prediction that as capitalism fails -- or succeeds too well until one person or syndicate owns everything -- it will be followed by a form of socialism which will be a better system for most - seems to be a fantasy especially as we've seen how easy it is for massive numbers of people to be manipulated through propaganda. There are too many examples to name going back to the dawn of civilization where we can see how a small  number of people always seem to gain power under any system. I bet they had many similar problems in the caves.


School Scope: Socialism and Confusion
By Norm Scott
Published in The WAVE, Friday, August 17, 2018
www.rockawave.com

The UFT was founded by social democrats who were members of a party called Social Democrats USA (SDUSA). Albert Shanker and most of the early UFT leadership were members. They were virulent anti-communists who came out of the Trotskyite wing of socialism, which had been the main enemy of Stalinism. In the early 70s’ the almost 100 year old Socialist Party of America split into right and left factions and the UFT was a key player in the right wing faction.

There are so many brands of socialism, when I finish counting on both hands, I have to take my shoes off. When discussing politics with a right winger at a recent dinner, in the midst of disparaging the very idea of socialism, he said the idea of socialism and democracy were contradictory, so how can people call themselves Democratic Socialists? Even among Democrats and people who view themselves as “progressive”, there seems to be confusion about socialism. If you don’t follow the left, you wouldn’t be aware of the differences between Marxists, Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, Maoists, and too many more to name here.

Does being a socialist mean you favor Soviet communism, a system that lasted for 75 years and has been viewed as a failure? Consider the past 25 years of post-communist Russia under Putin. A bit more democracy, though basically a one party system under Putin’s control and if you speak too loud you get bumped off. A very nice deal for kleptocrat billionaires who were handed most of the entire state owned industry on the cheap. But most people in Russia would still vote for Putin over the old system - at this point. (Def. of kleptocracy - a form of corrupt government that allows the ruling class to accumulate great wealth and power while neglecting the mass of citizens – sound familiar?)

How about China? Not much democracy but with more than a touch of capitalism, though the state can dictate a lot. China was a massively devastated nation in 1949 when Mao’s revolution began. On the timeline of less than 70 years of history, the outcomes have been impressive, though with great human costs. There were liberalization, but the current leader has been wringing signs of democracy out of the system. Most people in China seem content with a deal that allows them to do well economically. But if that changes, watch out.

Moving on to democratic socialism - a multi-party system, more economic leeway, including various levels of capitalism, though highly regulated to avoid exploitation of the workers – and the consumer. There are often very high tax rates but people do get a lot more for their money, i.e. most of the Scandinavian nations which provide very generous social services. European nations have versions of social democratic parties, but outside Scandinavia they have been struggling of late.

Bernie Sanders identifies himself as a social democrat. Since Trump’s win, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has grown tenfold. DSA is a big tent socialist organization, founded in 1982 as a remnant of the old socialist party of Norman Thomas and founder Eugene Debs, who got 6% of the presidential vote in 2012. They are not a political party and do not run candidates under their party banner on separate lines like the Green Party, but back think-alike candidates running in Democratic Party primaries and in the general election. DSA received a lot of main stream press publicity after socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her recent primary. Our mayor has jumped on the socialist bandwagon, as has Cuomo primary opponent Cynthia Nixon. In last week’s primary a DSA endorsed Michigan Muslim woman won a primary, which may give DSA endorsees at least two seats in Congress plus other seats in local races.

The very idea has right wingers in a frenzy, a frenzy which even infects many Democrats who despise Bernie Sanders and blame him for Trump’s win. The so-called coming blue wave of victories by Democrats in the 2018 mid-term elections may just include a small wavelet of social democrats.

Norm promotes his own version of kleptocracy at ednotesonline.com

School Scope: On The Importance of The Wave, Local News, Socialism, Capitalism and More

My column in The Wave this past Friday - August 10, 2018

School Scope: On The Importance of The Wave, Local News, Socialism, Capitalism and More

By Norm Scott

The gutting of the Daily News has raised the issue of the assault on print publications, exacerbated by the Trump tariff on Canadian paper (not an accident) which has raised costs and other assaults on weakening the press with constant attacks financially on their ability to cover news and also attacks on the integrity of the press. Now I too have always been skeptical of the way some of the press covers the news. I assume all coverage has some bias and try to read a balanced variety so I can make my own decisions. But if you watch Fox or read the right wing press it is clear we are living in different universes.

The Daily News story has been viewed as the coming end of local coverage. We are left with the Post which is Fix news and the Times which doesn’t devote major resources to local coverage. Recently we have also heard of smaller local papers under attack. In Maryland a guy with a grudge shot up a local paper’s newsroom, killing five people. In California we hear of a local paper that was bought by its former editor and his wife, both avid Trump and right wing supporters. Fears in that community are that they will be getting a barrage of biased coverage.

Even more local papers have been bought up by chains. Most people who can afford to own a newspaper are generally wealthier than the population in general and thus tend to be more conservative, so coverage of the left and liberal causes, despite the right wing’s branding of the press as biased left, does not get covered adequately.

Independent papers like The Wave are increasingly important to communities like Rockaway and I give them credit for heroically trying to cover the Rockaways as extensively as possible with very limited resources. And for being willing to give people like me the opportunity to offer alternative views from the left. Here’s hoping that our local independent newspaper can maintain its ability to offer us this service that is disappearing from so many places in this nation and around the world.

As I’ve been trying to point out, there are many brands of liberals, Democrats and socialists. Remember, the Democratic Party was the party of slavery and the Dixiecrats ruled the party even in the Franklin Roosevelt years, only going Republican when Lyndon Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act in the mid 1960s. There are also many brands of socialists. We think of socialists as communists – the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and even Venezuela. Given that we are seeing mainstream articles and columns even in the NY Times about capitalism and socialism, I will continues to explore these issues in portions of my upcoming summer columns, in addition to resuming education coverage in the fall.

So in this spirit, let me give you a homework assignment for next week: Is a Democratic Socialist Really a Socialist?

Norm does his homework every day at ednotesonline.com